Homeward

After spending yesterday eating, reading, snacking and napping (it was so nice!) today we headed home. We ‘accidentally’ managed to hit Carpinteria for lunch and as long as we were there….

The biggest and oldest Christmas cactus I’ve ever seen -so awesome - plus the 2” succulents that followed us home

Seaside Gardens (here) was our first stop. We’ve been there before - great selection, reasonable prices (much better than other stores in our area) and lots of pretty things to admire.

 Variegated snake plant

They didn’t have the thing I was looking for but we came away with a snake plant ⬆️, big ⬇️ and little cacti, plus a selection of planting pots. 

 The flowers on this Echveria will be orange! Can’t wait.

Gallop and Stribling Orchids, just down the road, was a big surprise. 

 Orchids everywhere 

I knew they had a plant and gift shop but didn’t realize they also had warehouse-size greenhouses packed full of orchids, with a nice sideline in succulents and air plants. 

 Bought more air plants and a piece of driftwood to display them.

Plus one of the largest orchid propagation labs in the US. 

It was amazing. 

We picked up a few things 

 How could we resist lime green orchids?

and if the orchids I already have survive, we’ll be going back for more!

 

Nature Walk

Pix from hubby’s morning walk through the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. How many bees can you see?

Sunset on the beach.

Time Out

We’re in Cambria for a long weekend, 

View from the west balcony

renting a house about a block from the ocean 

and across the street from the nature preserve 

 Downstairs

where Pop likes to go walking in the morning.

 Upstairs

My original 100 Days project is on pause, so I brought along the National Parks quilt I made in… 2021?!? 

Made a plan in 2024 (here) to embroider around each state park we’ve visited. It keeps getting put aside for other things but 100 Days may give me the push to finish it. 

 Traditional sunset-over-Cambria pic

At least until we visit another park…

 East-facing balcony. Love a house with a choice of balconies-with-a-view

 View from east balcony

Wildflowers #16

This block might be my favorite - definitely top 5 - and not just because it’s the last one. 

Decided the finished quilt should be wall-hanging-size, so 16 blocks are better than the original project’s 20. 

Tap or click the picture to open a better quality pic with lots more detail.

Next is squaring up the blocks and deciding on fabric for sashing around the squares. Have embroidery on the sashing? Still thinking ‘yes’, although I haven’t found the right design yet. Maybe bees? Or dragonflies? Bees and dragonflies?? Discovered I have a package of printable stick-and-stitch fabric in the stash so that opens up more design possibilities. Gotta think about it on the trip to Cambria. Suggestions welcome!

Silliness

I miss the silliness of the Jackie and Donovan days. Fortunately, there’s FaceTime. Unfortunately, there’s no pics of Donovan’s excitement over his button quail, something he and his mom have been planning for months to get for D’s birthday. The one he was holding, a girl (gender is a guess at this point…), was named “Duck Duck.” Two others were Queen Quail and The King (I can’t remember the other 5 but they were funny too.) He couldn’t talk fast enough to tell us all the exciting things he’s been doing. So fun.

Screenshot pics aren’t the clearest…

Jac has called a few times recently, usually when she wants company while she eats. I’m happy for any excuse to chat. Today she’d just gotten home from school and both she and River the Dog were so excited to see each other they could hardly stand it. 

Then she gave us a tour of the bunny and chicken pens, including the escaped rooster (he’s beautiful) that she feeds regularly and is determined to capture one of these days. I’d pay good money to see that chase! 

Only a month to go until our first trip to Idaho. Can’t wait!

Air and Prayer Plants

This one wasn’t my fault. 

We walked into the hardware store for one! thing! Hubby spotted this Lemon Lime Prayer Plant (Maranta), which was not the one thing, but it was the thing that came home with us. Research says it’s tricky to keep happy so this will be interesting.

Stricta Compact Magenta

These were my fault. I remember air plants, back in the 70’s, as the thing you glued to a magnet, put on the refrigerator and never had to feed or water. I more than half believed they were fake. 

 Capitata Peach

Turns out Tillandsia (the proper name) are real, very pretty and super easy to care for. You soak them in water for 30 minutes once a week, gently shake dry and leave them upside down to air dry overnight. Mist with water occasionally and add fertilizer to their bath once a month. Easy peasy.

These are going to live on a piece of driftwood for now. I’d like to do something fancier - maybe wire wrapped rocks? - but need to research more. Aren’t they pretty??

Repotting

Look at this! The smaller money tree I cut back (here) has new growth! So exciting*. (Whooooo, I didn’t kill it!)

The newest money tree, that I bought a few weeks ago, was looking a little droopy. Growers often tie the bottom trunks together when they braid the trees and, as the plant grows, the rubber band/wire/twine starts cutting into the wood. 

Sure enough, once the soil was washed off you could see the damage. 

Cut and removed the rubber bands under the soil and the wire garbage ties around the branches, repotted it in fresh soil with a clear pot and put it back under the grow light. 

It measures 14” from top of the pot to the highest branch. Wonder how much it will grow in a month…

As long as I had everything out… the smaller anthurium had a couple of leaves that were turning brown. Research said it could be the soil, so I trimmed off the worst leaf and rinsed off the old dirt.

Turns out most of the root ball was constricted by a papery net growers use to start new plants. It’s supposed to decompose but hadn’t this time. Pulled it apart with tweezers, rinsed and untangled the roots before finishing the repot. It looks so shiny and happy.

The soil around the Pink Quill was retaining too much water, so it got a quick root rinse and some fresh chunky soil. 

Look at those little spidery roots. Guess you don’t need much root-wise if you’re growing on a tree or rock in the jungle. 

* I’ve always enjoyed having plants but it was a ‘stick them in a pot and hope they survive’ kinda thing. Most of the time they didn’t. Having access to so many how-to videos on the interwebs has been eye opening. Kinda excited to see if I can keep these not just alive but flourishing.